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iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3: S3 Still Rules

Although the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been selling well since its release this summer, the iPhone 5 might upset its track record. Let’s have a shuftie at the specs.

iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 vs iPhone 5 (comparison)

Apple never reveals its hardware, so decent comparisons are hard to do. We do know that the new A6 chip is twice as fast as the A5, but it’s not quad-core. That’s all we’ve got.

The iPhone 5 has been flying off the shelves, with five million pre-orders in its first 72 hours. The Samsung Galaxy S3 recently broke the 30 million unit mark and no one knows how much further it can go before the year is up.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is 133g and 136.6×70.6×8.6mm. The iPhone 5 is a weeny little 112g and is 123.8×58.6×7.6mm. In the tech arena, small and light wins, so the iPhone 5 has it.

Both phones have Wi-Fi, LTE and Bluetooth. The Samsung Galaxy S3 also benefits from wireless charging, NFC and DNLA. The S3 also works with a generic microUSB cable, whereas the iPhone 5 has a unique proprietary connector. People will have to pay $30 for a new adapter, and even this may not fit some older Apple accessories. The Samsung Galaxy S3 wins here.

The iPhone 5 has a 4” Retina screen, a 1,126x640p resolution and Gorilla Glass. The Samsung Galaxy S3 4.8” screen also has Gorilla Glass and a 1,280x720p resolution. They both have HD resolution and 16:9 ratios. It’s size that matters here, so the S3 gets another point.

Both handsets come in 16, 32 and 64GB models. SD add-on storage gives the Samsung Galaxy S3 another 64GB of memory, so the S3 has it on storage too.

Teardowns of the iPhone 5 reckon that it has an A6 chip, two ARMv7 cores at 1.3GHz, and a triple-core PowerVR SGX 543MP3. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has an Exynos chip, four 1.4GHz Cortex A9 chips and a Mali 400 GPU. When it comes to 3D games and serious multitasking, the extra cores give the S3 a big edge, on paper at least. And even though the US S3 is just dual-core, the 2GB of RAM helps out, so the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the winner here, too.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 works on ICS and is waiting for Jelly Bean. The iPhone 5 has iOS 6. It’s up to you – iOS 6 is more streamlined and the most tinkering you will do are wallpapers and ringtones. Whereas Android can be customized heavily in order to get the most out of it. Another draw here as it’s a matter of personal preference.

Both of these phones have brilliant 8MP cameras with LED flash, image stabilisation, autofocus and HD video. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has smile detection, but this is still nowhere near as good as the BSI sensor that allows the iPhone 5 to take great low light images. Only the Nokia Lumia 920 beats the iPhone 5 in dingy conditions, so the iPhone 5 takes this category away.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 doesn’t stand a chance against the design of the iPhone 5. We’ve got sleek glass and aluminium against S3’s plastic fantastic body. Apple carries it away.

So, to sum up, the Samsung Galaxy S3 gets five points – chipset, storage, battery, display and connectivity. The iPhone 5 takes three – size, camera and design. The pair drew on OS, so the S3 is a bit ahead. Only a bit, mind you.

The latest addition to our team, while Anna has a long way to go to catch up with the number of stories the rest of the team has broken, Anna has some ‘well connected’ sources in the tech industry. Breaking rumors like bad eggs, it is difficult to ignore Anna’s headlines… we dare you to try!